Leave me alone...

Comment

By JACKIE BEEDIE

I have just come off the phone from yet another unsolicited call with a company who want to look after all my money. I get one or two of these calls a day from companies all over the world. Usually, I spot them coming in as they route their calls through the US or Japan or the number is private.

At first I just ignored them, but then they phone back many times until you are forced to answer. The other thing is that, as a salesman with a global customer base, I cannot afford to ignore them as they may be genuine calls from customers. Again because of the fact that I am in sales, I cannot really keep my number private, it is out there on many websites, directories and trade journals, so I have to pay the price.

Once they get you, they launch into their scripted spiels. If you are unlucky enough to have a “go getting” girl on the phone, then you cannot interrupt them as they just ignore everything you say and keep to the script. As I was brought up to be polite, I just cannot bring myself to cut the call, I have to wait until I can get a word in edgeways and agree with her that we need to stop now.

If you have a western bloke on the phone, you can at least break into the call at the mention of “finance” or “wealth management”, explain your situation and generally he will recognise that he is wasting his time as well as mine and we will say a polite goodbye. Some of my friends tell me to just put the phone down, get on with some work and leave it alone, but I cannot do that either as I need to keep my phone free for legitimate calls.

If you are in a meeting and try to tell them you cannot take the call, they still won’t go away. They want to know when is a good time to call you back, and if you say never then the script starts all over again.

The premise is that because I am a British expat working in Bahrain, I obviously have a great deal of cash just lying around that I don’t know what to do with. If only that was true!

Even if I did, I would hardly be likely to trust it to complete strangers. I have in the past invested money with people who I knew or were recommended by friends and that has often not gone well. So if any marketing companies out there are reading this, let me tell you I am not a High Net Worth individual and any spare cash I do have I am keeping to pay for the increased electricity and water bills that are heading my way. So leave me alone!